CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The western part of P.E.I. is still expected to see the worst of the incoming spring storm, says the chief meteorologist of the SaltWire Network.
Cindy Day said her forecast hasn’t changed in the past 24 hours — with snow, wind and rain arriving tonight and continuing through midday on Friday
Prince County is expected to receive up to 15 centimetes of snow while Day said Queens and Kings counties will be in the range of five to 10 centimetres. Winds will gust between 70 and 90 km/h during the overnight hours.
“It’s still pretty significant for the western corner of the Island,’’ Day said. “I guess the blessing of this system is that it really is a big overnight event.’’
The snow is expected to start falling no later than 11 p.m. on Thursday and will continue falling until 4 or 5 a.m. in the east before it flips over and changes to rain. That rain will then spread west as the low-pressure system crosses into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Winds will diminish around mid-morning on Friday to 50-60 km/h; still significant, but not in the warning criteria.
“We’re going to see some sunny periods (Friday) morning and then a few showers in the afternoon, warming up to 4 or 5 C before colder air kind of pushes in behind it.’’
Showers will turn to flurries Friday night with a bit of on-shore snow falling into Saturday morning.
Despite the hype that storms are given, Day said some Islanders could wake up Friday morning to very little snow on the ground.
“That’s very likely because temperatures will rise overnight, the first couple of centimetres (of snow) is probably not going to accumulate and then eventually that will change to rain. If you sleep in a little bit (Friday morning) there’s not going to be much evidence (of snow).’’
However, she said the winds will still be howling.
Day is keeping an eye on the next system that will bring wind and rain to the province on Monday and Tuesday with temperatures in the double digits.
Twitter.com/DveStewart
